Effective Dec. 1, David Crenshaw will become the numismatic industry group’s chief operating officer, a newly created position that will work closely with Executive Director Kathy McFadden, who became the Maryland-based organization’s executive director Oct. 1.

Most recently he has serve a nine-year stint as general manager of the largest and best privately run coin expos in the country: Whitman Coin & Collectibles Expo, with shows in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Nashville.

During that time with Whitman he has had seven years of close collaboration with ICTA, including fending off potentially harmful legislation in Maryland.

Crenshaw led the effort to defeat Maryland Gov. O’Malley’s 2013 budget proposal, a provision of which would have repealed the sales tax exemption for transactions involving precious metal bullion and coins.

Through his efforts with key numismatic professional colleagues and like-minded members of the Maryland House of Delegates, House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 152 never reached the floor. The effort saved an estimated $3 million, not to mention millions more in economic impact for the people of Maryland.

Prior to his position with Whitman, Crenshaw worked as a computer programmer and analyst for Honey Baked Ham Company and others. This experiience will be a close fit for his new duties at ICTA. Among his new responsibilities will be working to ensure the organization takes full advantage of the latest technological advancements.

“David Crenshaw brings a unique skill set to ICTA, combining his relationship with many of our dealers and his knowledge of computers” says ICTA Chairman Bob Greenstein.

“After his years of experience of helping coin dealers for the Whitman Baltimore show, he is the right person at the right time to continue those relationships representing ICTA,” said former American Numismatic Association President Barry Stuppler.

In testimonial to the high regard in which Whitman holds Crenshaw, Whitman Publishing President Mary Burleson said, “David Crenshaw has been a valued member of the Whitman team since 2004. Whitman has been a supporter of ICTA for many years, and we wish David success in his new position.”

Crenshaw’s interest in numismatics has been lifelong.

He began collecting at age 10. By the time he was 13 he had founded his own mail-order error coin business, publishing a catalog cleverly named, “Nobody’s Perfect,” which helped support him through high school and college.

Since then, he’s served the coin collecting community in a number of notable ways: as editor of both the Metropolitan Coin Club of Atlanta and the Georgia Numismatic Association’s journals and as secretary and vice president, respectively, of those organizations.